Infallibilism is the
epistemological
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
view that propositional
knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...
is incompatible with the possibility of being wrong.
Definition
In
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
, infallibilism (sometimes called "epistemic infallibilism") is the view that knowing the truth of a
proposition
In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...
is incompatible with there being any possibility that the proposition could be false. This is typically understood as indicating that for a
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...
to count as knowledge, one's evidence or justification must provide one with such strong grounds that the belief ''must'' be
true
True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality.
True may also refer to:
Places
* True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
* True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States
* Tr ...
, or equivalently, that it is completely impossible for it to be false. The infallibility of such a belief may also mean that it cannot even be doubted.
Importantly, infallibilism should not be confused with the universally accepted view that a proposition ''P'' must be true in order for someone to know that ''P''. Instead, the infallibilist holds that a person who knows ''P'' could not have all of the same evidence (or justification) that one currently has if ''P'' were false, and therefore that one's evidence/justification offers a guarantee of the truth of ''P''. Thus, in cases where a person could have held the same true belief ''P'' with the same level of evidence (or justification) and still been wrong, the infallibilist holds that the person does not know ''P''.
The infallibilist defines knowledge in the following way: A person (henceforth ''S'') knows that a proposition (henceforth ''P'') is true if and only if...
# ''P'' is true.
# ''S'' believes that ''P'' is true.
# ''S'' is justified in their belief that ''P'' is true.
# ''Ss justification guarantees the truth of ''P''.
According to the infallibilist, fallible beliefs may be rationally
justified, but they do not rise to the level of ''knowledge'' unless their truth is absolutely certain given one's evidence. The contrary view to infallibilism, known as
fallibilism
Originally, fallibilism (from Medieval Latin: ''fallibilis'', "liable to err") is the philosophical principle that Proposition, propositions can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or Justification (epistemology), justifie ...
, is the position that a justified true belief may be considered knowledge even if one's evidence does not guarantee its truth, or even if one can rationally doubt it given one's current evidence.
Infallibilism should not be confused with
skepticism
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
, which is the view that knowledge is unattainable for rational human beings. While numerous critics of infallibilism claim that defining knowledge according to such high standards collapses into epistemic skepticism, many proponents of infallibilism (although not all) deny that this is the case.
History of infallibilism
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...
, an early proponent of infallibilism argued, “my reason convinces me that I ought not the less carefully to withhold belief from what is not entirely certain and indubitable, than from what is manifestly false”.
Contemporary infallibilism
Infallibilism is rejected by most contemporary epistemologists, who generally accept that one can have knowledge based on fallible justification.
Baron Reed has provided an account of the reasons why infallibilism is so widely regarded as untenable today.
Broad consensus notwithstanding, some contemporary philosophers have presented arguments in defense of infallibilism and have therefore come to reject fallibilism. For instance, Mark Kaplan defends such a view in a 2006 paper entitled "If You Know You Can't Be Wrong". Other notable contemporary proponents of infallibilism include Andrew Moon, Julien Dutant, and Matthew Benton.
[See ; ; and .]
See also
*
Infallibility
Infallibility refers to an inability to be wrong. It can be applied within a specific domain, or it can be used as a more general adjective. The term has significance in both epistemology and theology, and its meaning and significance in both fi ...
References
Epistemological theories
{{Philosophy topics